I’ve hiked up Si with John M. a few times this last month. He carries 60 pounds, trying to maintain the level of conditioning he reached in order to climbAconcagua; for my part, I find that a couple of water bottles and a camera is plenty of ballast for a good workout. He’s been setting a faster pace each week; today we hit the top in 1:55. That’s only ten minutes off the best time I ever hit, back when I was working out regularly, and I don’t even feel wrecked. So that’s good.

I’m a long way from being able to do that with sixty pounds on my back, though!